the most pressing issue of our time which is how to create jobs and inclusion and a workforce that is ready to grapple with the fourth Industrial Revolution how are we going to do that what's the role of business what's the role the public sector what's the role of civic society in that so I'm just going to give a few facts to kind of set the stage then I'm going to introduce our panelists and we're gonna have a chat amongst ourselves and then we're gonna draw you all in very quickly and we have some technology in which if you want to use a slide oh I think that some of you probably already have this on your phones you can email or text in your questions they're gonna appear right here on the on the on those screens here so we can ask them in real time and then we'll also be able to to take questions from the audience as you like I may also ask you some polls during the during the conversation maybe we can just say that the starting point is the fourth Industrial Revolution is very anxiety-provoking for a lot of people it can be scary but if you look historically technology has always been a net new jobs creator however there are periods of disruption right historically I mean we could name all of them hundreds of years back there are always periods of disruption right now we're going through changes that are broader and deeper and faster than ever before in history and so that's why it's so important to address these challenges according to the forum's future of jobs report which you can find on the website machines algorithms in the workplace all the new technologies we've been talking about all week could potentially lead to a net positive growth of 58 million jobs but only if the right labor policies and the right community between all three of these sectors is is in place I'm gonna give you one more statistic which I find very very interesting again from the wefts report 65% of children that are entering primary school are going to work in jobs that don't even exist so that is that's incredibly exciting it's also incredibly challenging I I have a college daughter is about to go to college and I'm trying desperately to figure out you know what the future is this is very personally relevant to me so let me just start quickly and and introduce our panelists starting here from the far right we have Sharon who's the general secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation and you're based in Belgium to her left we have hands vest Berg who is the chief executive officer of Verizon Communications in the USA to my left we have Muriel Penn of code who is the Labor Minister of France and on the far left here we have along to Hayes who is the chief executive officer of the adecco group of Switzerland which is a work workforce solutions okay I want to make sure I get the description right there so let me start let me start actually sharing with you because you're on the frontlines of this I mean you are representing one of the largest labor organizations in the world how would you frame these challenges for the workers of the planet well first of all let me say that we're not particularly frightened about the technology we actually think there are ethical issues but their societal issues about how you deploy technology and we don't but we don't believe in a in a deterministic future either so it is a matter of the use of the technology and then how you integrate it but for trade unions we've been integrating technology for decades you're right that what's different now is the speed and the and the dramatic shifts in the way production is managed or the way we're dealing with you know services of any kind we do take a little bit of issue of the 68% of jobs I mean I've heard these statistics for three decades yes the skills will be very different so if that's the way you categorize it fine but you're still going to have agriculture and construction and manufacturing and services in in a whole variety of ways there will be some new industries it's really the question of the skills so if you walk back from this a little and you say so our challenge is really the transition and in fact Ronnie you put your finger on it there are periods of disruption now we've not dealt with those as efficiently as we might have in previous transitions but it's always in in economies that have dealt were with this in businesses are dealt with it's killing upskilling re-skilling always been part of the equation and we need to add a few more things now because there will be displaced workers I mean the jobs we can argue about whether there'll be more jobs or or less jobs we're not prepared to give up on full employment so we hope those statistics are right and more but but it will be in fact the case that while they'll be melded or blended jobs with technology they'll also be displacement and we have to get the social contract right the ILO's report released yesterday actually you know I mean already we've got inequality that's the historic level so we need to do we need to have a renewed social contract for that basis but yesterday the ILO's report actually gives you a very good frame on this reinvigorated social contract with a labor floor of a labor guarantee so as we're seeing displaced workers by platform work where you are terribly precarious you can't actually plan your working life or your income then we can fix that and so there are solutions we've just got to have the mindset and the collaborative will to make it happen that's a great framing and I'm thinking about kind of three points as you're speaking one the challenges differ with automation country to country big time there are questions about the meaning of work and even if jobs aren't completely displaced everyone's work is going to change so in a way this this this relates to all of us this isn't just about vulnerable people in certain populations hans let me come to you because you're on the front lines of this yeah i'm sure like every CEO I talked to skill issues the skills gap figuring out that the arbitrage between jobs that are available skills that are available is a big deal talk about it talk to us about that and give us some color about how this is playing out within your own firm yeah I think that first of all I mean my history has been that I've been on the borderline bit between the technology evolution and how that is impacting positively on our society for many years so of course first of all one need to understand that this fourth Industrial Revolution and technology is coming should be the technologies it actually can make this planet sustainable because many on the previous industrial revolutions are actually used a lot natural resources and if we won't have equality everybody have the same possibilities we need technologies that are coming out on a global platforms and things like that so there's no way we cannot sort of try to stop it or something but of course it posed a couple of challenges especially large corporation I think that and that not only for the companies I represent I mean we have one hundred and fifty five thousand em please I think we're any large corporation you need new type of skills and then of course we cannot rely on the school system because that's gonna take too long so of course we take need a new social contract because we probably every three to five years need new type of skills in the company and you cannot fire and hire in and out in that size of company it is so much disruption so we need together with the many public sector of course seeing that we have a long time learning from the public sector but as a company I mean the drive for education education and self learning in a company is enormous I mean I can compare the lost 20 years I mean in corporations and then right now you have so many training can take internally but it's also up to the individual in the company if I want to rescale if I want to train these sort of classes you can take if you want that job so of course as a corporation you work a lot with that the second thing which is also challenged with all this because when you do global digital platform you have a total new job environment whole time workers people that can actually sleep in one country innovative product and they 3d print in another country they're self-employed large corporation historically stand for all the benefits and having so the social contribution alone that and suddenly we have that labor market millenniums that want to come in and then you think about large corporation and I think 10 15 years out will it be huge companies with hundreds of thousands of employees the millenniums they seem to want to come in and out work two years here and part-time and do what they what they want to do and the whole system has been built around north cooperation I think a lot about that ultimately I think if you're Purpose Driven and and people really like to be there they think they're gonna be there two years it's gonna be there 100 years so 25 years so I think it's possibilities but those sort of things with skills and the new workforce that we're getting in here or big challenges for any large corporation that's so fascinating and you know the point that you're making about 3d printing large businesses small businesses global/local I mean I've heard that this talked about in the context of the trade debate you know maybe trade flows are gonna be completely different based on new technologies but labor markets are gonna determine you're gonna sleep in one country and you produce in another country I mean borders were thought about borders being the way you deal with things labor market products and of course taxes were discussing constantly right now between countries but it's so many other things that this digital economic economy will give you and it has to be there if not we're gonna have a urbanization to few places on earth we cannot have that if we're gonna have a resource food planet then taking care of yeah Wow okay there's so much there we're gonna collect all those points but no it's brilliant but you're raising an important question which is what is the new social compact so Minister I'm gonna turn to you and ask you how you see that question and what you see the role the state being and working to buffer all these changes for citizens first we share with you with you all the fact that the size and the speed of change is unknown so we face together an unknown so we have to organize the different way to face the unknown we estimate that 10 to 15 percent of the job will be suppressed in the coming 10 years 10 to 20 25 will be created but maybe the most dramatic change is half a job will dramatically change is a coming in the coming years in the coming 10 years so the question of risk killing and upskilling become not only a humanist question or something nice something good but something vital yeah vital for individual vital for company I think for company today the access to capital is much more easier that access to skills of course there was a war of talents since years and years but was only the top now it's all level level and the company or the nation that will tomorrow will grow and will continue to be able to share will be the one who have invested the the best way in skills it's why we decided to launch a program that I will call up skills a nation in France and in last September we passed a law that created new rights and new landscape for the whole scaling and of scaling up scaling and the lifelong learning with two main things first is to create a system that helps company to keep the employees but to risk kills massively and shogunate probably the most innovative is to create a right for any of the 26 and workers or on pre inference we they will reserve their will benefit of a credit for training every year and 500 views every year on an account and it will be pretty on top of what do companies do prepare the future to anticipate they will have the freedom to choose their own training and in Lennox November there will be an app and everyone will be able to know is right but also to choose among the whole offer of all 35 training so it's seven and thousand and thousand of training in France and to apply and decide by by itself and why it's important because and we see it in France as you know this week's most of many of our citizens in all our countries think that they are victims of globalization and technology it's a threat for them but when you are not in the driving seat change it's always a threat yeah the only way you you can be active you need to be proactive you will need to be in the driving seat too as part of choice travel be able to choose your own future it's never 100 when I represent me you need to be impaired and abled to choose part of your professional life better than yesterday and that's why there is a sense of this slow is this individual tuning up and right with money and where you everyone will be able to make its own choice at the same time we are decided to invest a 15 billion in five years to train massively 1min young young people and 1 million unemployed people because still even if you decrease its one year we have still very high level of unemployment in France to massively train to current job where we don't have the competence ease one out of two companies have difficulty has difficulty to recruit at the same type of high level of unemployment but also of course every new jobs or transformed job lead to a digital revolution or climate change revolution with a lot of opportunities to and so we do boss at the same time massive investment of course this is base there's a new right it's based on a discussion with unions and employers and based on an agreement cities have taken together who have pushed that a little further that's a responsibility of the Parliament and the government it's really something where of course we need on board all the industry all the compañía and unions of course so this is fast me I'm hearing three really important things first of all you've got that ecosystem going public/private union all that is important you're echoing something that I've heard a lot of people say to me this week which is that it's very different depending on whether you're the one articulating change or receiving change very different dynamics and it's important that people feel empowered and then thirdly and I think this is really important it's something I hear all the time in the US this idea of giving a tax credit for investment in human capital rather than just capital capital because as you say there's a glut of money but there's a shortage of human capital so how to kind of help businesses to to incentivize that investment so those are great points Ilan let me come to you you are as someone that runs a company that specializes in workforce solutions all kinds of temporary labor all kinds of sort of interim needs you're kind of in the middle of this that you must be seeing a lot of the pressure points between these three different areas so I'm wondering if you can kind of articulate what you see as some of the pressing challenges and also they're interesting solutions you're still saying that you would call out that are scalable in any particular countries yes for I shared the optimism of Sharon because technology is opening a lot of new opportunities and as you like figures I will also quote some figures forty forty percent of the American population was in nineteen hundred and one fitting the total American population today it is two percent and yeah we can employment has never been so low in the US so admit that good job but it means that yeah thanks to creativity new industries new jobs will be created the big challenge for me from what we see at all 100,000 customers we have in in 60 countries is the speed of the transition because technology is making its inroad extremely fast and the question the challenge is how does society companies and employees adapt to this acceleration of technology in road so the key challenge is about the speed and the way we transition from one one system to the Toutle to the new esta to the future of word and there I would say that's perhaps my second message it's time to act because I'm it's my age you're here at Davos and for sure the last three years everybody has spoken about the future of work do you need to rescale appscale and so on and we are saying as the ethical group it is time to act yeah and what does it mean time to act it means that yes we need to reinvigorate the social contract but this social contract must be a tripartite solution it must be a multi-stakeholder solution you have heard Minister penico about the great initiative the French government has taken regarding rescaling this is very good because we see also that it is the responsibility of government in the world to put in place the right framework to allow this transition to obscure the upskill rescale people second you have the employers and especially entrepreneurs if you want your company your product to be sustainable towards the future you need to innovate you you need to adapt but especially you need the right talents yeah and if you don't develop the right talents for the future your company won't be sustainable so this is also I would say a call to the employers do you have a predictive workforce plan do you have a predictive plan regarding the tenant you will need in one year two years three years five years in order to remain competitive and sustainable and third it is also time to act for individual staff everybody as an individual is as also the responsibility to remain employable yeah and we see that we made some statistic 57% 57% of employees finds that there are also individually responsible to become employable for the future so this is a call we are doing it is time to act it must be a multi stakeholders responsibility and then we come with some innovation we had also a new paper and we said yes as EPS killing risk inning is about investment in human capital first of all we said we should consider risk inning and upskilling as an investment and yeah treat it differently and instead as taking in risk inning and up skinning as a cost let's take it as a capital amortization and amortize your cost of rescaling according to the the life of your skills and we know that every individual today is losing 30% of his competitors or of his competitors and skills after a period of four years so it is important to hear skills yourself that sorry go ahead make your last point yeah I don't know and what we said I'm glad with the initiative of the French government it should be individualized this rescaling solutions because according to the the new sociological framework the gig economy the freelance and Sirhan's we see that especially the young generation is going from one company to the others from one project to the others so it is important that yes they have the flexibility they are looking for but at the same time there is a security put in place so that's why we are suggesting to individualize that kind of initiative that's a really fascinating point yeah you're making me think about two things again the idea that labor should be an asset and not just a cost on the balance sheet both at a national level and a corporate level very important also this idea of how do how does the the millennial generation want to work what are the what are the different ways in which jobs are what a job is going to look like I'm thinking I wanted to share one quick anecdote and then should I want to ask you a question I had a fascinating conversation with a head of a German pharmaceutical company and she said that they have two tracks now in terms of employment that they offer when people come into the company they offer a traditional track you get benefits you have kind of a slow and steady path more security but then they offer an entrepreneurial track where you come in you don't maybe get the same amount of benefits but you have a piece of whatever innovation it's more of a kind of a venture capital model said 70% of Millennials are choosing that model which I found was quite quite fascinating but this also begs the question which Sharon you touched on what is a good job and to your point there's plenty of job creation in some places in the u.s.
A lot of politicians would boast about job creation half of the fastest growing job categories are $15 an hour or less so what does a good job look like how do we make sure we have them well you make sure you have them first of all by ensuring everybody has a living wage a minimum living wage if you can't live on a wage then in fact you have a precarious life now that leads to a precarious economy so news is supported by the state potentially well that true but often not at all look at the 800,000 workers in America I think this is amazing that they're middling income earners but what you see is the precariousness when within 30 days they're losing their homes can't pay their mortgages having cars repossessed yes these are not poor workers but wanted to say two things about the good job question we can make any job a good job and we can recognize work we're at care work for example and pay at a good wage it's not about affordability the world's three times richer than it was twenty years ago are we not distributing it through wages so a minimum living wage universal social protection so you'll have income when in fact you have times when you've been displaced or when you know you're raising a family or whatever it might be and that can be for self-employed workers we organize self-employed entrepreneurs we organize an informal women in cooperatives we organize farm workers who have no attachment to any corporation but rely on corporations for supply chains as well as the big companies and we know the solutions you can put a labor guarantee under all workers it's a much more significant challenge for us to say do we have the political will to do that I think Elaine you're right we always like to be challenged in as individuals but if you're in a de plate is displaced environment or I'm great to hear your commitment to upscaling and Retraining your own workforce because we've got away from doing that and that's I lost the capital for companies but actually I don't buy the Millennial we want to be here and there and everywhere mm-hmm talk to them yes they want some excitement in the first years of their life but most of my staff are now in their category they're suddenly starting to get married they want cha here and they want the Cure jobs and they're not too different from the rest of us let's grow up the only thing is they have a more flexible approach to technology because I grew up with it that's a good thing so I think the mix is there and I'm really pleased to hear Minister penico say that it's a credit to train on a certified course because I've seen a lot of skills portfolios funded not enough but but a lot of them but we've seen they're terrible fly-by-night companies who are not providing the skills that are valuable to individuals or to business because they don't have vacation you can't have a trajectory of a qualifications base and so on so we have to get the back end of the systems right that's interesting but at it's and it's you know at the at the most challenging is to say are we prepared to give everybody a good secure working life whatever they're working at yeah and we can do it yeah we have the money Universal Social Protection a minimum living wage and the right to bargain collectively in fact today we're talking about two really exciting pieces of work with the manufacturing team here because there's a big shift going on in industry with technology as well and with sustainability challenges and and this sector manufacturing sector actually industry employs a quarter of the world's workforce and has the third of the global admission so as a passion at 1.5 supporter then because there are no jobs on a dead planet then we actually need to figure this out so in Sweden for example it is a joint commitment the unions bargained for three percent of the income to go into the fund the employers have contributed and now they've realized that under that only pays for about four to six months of income and training so they're taking now with government support actually the unemployment component of what it would be like to be out of work for a year putting that in the fund and they can now fund income and training for up to a year they've done the same thing different slightly different between employers and workers in Denmark and and we can do it anyway if we are actually creative about this and everybody's on the job together if a people do want security I love I love the real-world example of this working because it's really important I mean so often we talk about 35,000 feet things and to be able to say look this country has done it and it's replicable that's really hugely important you mentioned a couple people have mentioned climate you know in the u.s.
Green the idea of a green new deal is becoming a political issue I know in many countries that's that's been the same for for a while I'm curious how you want because your thoughts on this how do you see that integration the win-win potentially no I think that this is first of all the the RO lemon I've been sort of CEO for long time different companies the the change of the the the role that you have and the responsibility to have II III think is maybe I was wasn't mature enough before but but I think that the that you manage to shareholders your manager employees is important in customs but this also responsibility if you lead a large corporation has just dramatically changed I mean if you think about the climate thing and I think that every company need a thing like this first of all you need to go to yourself what is you as a company doing I mean I can take look at our company okay we try to travel less we do everything we can to reduce our see to a footprint then the next step is where we have 10x more impact is where the equipment we have equipment all over the world we use procure things that has less power consumption all the time that's 10x then have 10x on top of that and that's where I really have an impact that's when I have solution that IOT solutions where we can look where my customers can actually have a much less co2 emission and this is create jobs absolutely ultimately it's create both jobs and and and also a purpose and a mission for a company contributing to as if we both have the 17 goals and I think that if you come into a company they even if your millennium you want to work for companies actually trying to do good in there and you always then go back to your strategy our strategy we want to be based on technology worldwide we use that in our case any company can be poor to it and I think that creates Europe it creates motivation and purpose for the people in the company and I just want to go back to that yes we get to all these service about millenniums and all of that I am not equally binary CEO I said the jury's still out how they would like to have their work life in the future and I think also there they're gonna get families they're gonna think differently as well all the time but we need to cater for both of it but clearly we see right now initially they want to work differently but on this climate I think you both can create local solutions which are creating jobs but start with yourself with before you tell everyone else we need to do this and that you need to go into your own company show your own employees you were taking care whatever you can do in turn and then you can move outwards you're making a very important point about just solving this problem not just the climate problem but the jobs problem potentially the two of them together are it's integral both to customers who want to see this but also to the labor out of pool because as you say Millennials don't want to work for companies that don't have purpose Minister I want to come to you on the idea of climate and innovation and job creation this is obvious it's an international challenge this is not an easy moment to have multilateral agreements politically Chrystia Freeland the Trade Minister of Canada was on stage the other day and made a very very interesting point about how yes we're we are a global community you have the big problems or global problems but you need policies that work within your countries too because you can actually craft smart foreign policy unless you have strong you know domestic support Francis in a very interesting moment with this at the moment how how is the tension between global and local playing out in your country in terms of labor markets and job creation first I would say that and it's Nicosia and she said we're in a very impulsive moment and I think there's a reach the future is not written the long term is urgent very urgent otherwise it will not be long term on both sides the climate change with all the opportunities and challenges it represents but also on the social part I'm convinced that we globalization without more social regulation will go to end to the end it's the same for climate change so it's not time to make a lot of neurons it's a time for big action and for instance today in a excellent ILO report we will support the idea for universities Universal protect social protection minimum when I was an EVP insurer I did the first global agreement on in our company to us then on now there's 300 company that through global deal initiatives that were launched by the prime minister of Sweden our voluntary involuntary base doing global agreement on social so it can be training it can be social protections but if we don't have this content in Europe first I would go back to your question into Europe and at the global level people react negatively to globalization to technology they fear and you will say stop this please stop for me and the the the rise of nationalism in many many countries is linked to this threat yeah and if we don't have more social content in Europe and the world the time will be very difficult it some questions as climate change that after how you combine yeah it's not easy we exactly facing that in France at the moment we are determined on the social part and they determine on the ecological part but change in chakra mentioned enough quickly means what means change a lot of practices in jobs in agriculture construction industry transport waste management a lot of opportunity a lot of new jobs how you make it possible for people to join to catch up enough quickly for this to be represent an opportunity the social movement we had in the streets the last two months started by this question because we wanted to go quickly to change our our practices on co2 emission through cars and people say that we don't need to go to work and to live how you joined this launcher and the short term and that's the key for me of the agreement we need for that we need a stronger and better Europe because transfer loan will not be able to do it we do our pass yeah and I think we need to rally more at the global level to what we said for years and years but for years and years it was just nice words how you combine the diplom egos the climate change and the social progress and we fool don't combine this way the world will be chaotic if we combine and it's a responsibility for all of us we can make a change and I think it's not written the good news it's not written well the good news is we know the statistics for every dollar you invest in climate solutions you are gonna create jobs yes now they're gonna be jobs are disrupted as well and we can again within the social contract above that labor guarantee we can actually put the just transitions principles that are worked out with the B team we're trialing the ILO's just transition principles translated into business speak about how you engage your workforce in the change from the beginning because the trade union movement is convinced whether its climate or technology and sometimes it'll be both most often now to be both then if you engage your workforce if you have secured pensions for those who are going to retire perhaps earlier than they might want if you have the skills support we're talking about redeployment support and income through the transition it works it actually works people then feel secure enough to say ok well what is the change we're gonna have to make yeah because the fear is what we have to get over and and the age of anger that we're seeing not just in France Minister I was on the streets of India some weeks ago 200 million people on strike including farmers and everybody and the anger is palpable I've never felt it before so these we can solve this but you have to get high ambition through engagement and just transition and we have to give people good jobs and an income on which they can live again like in the previous discussion I think it's again time to act and and in this perspective there is a famous word you get what you measure and and also in this commission and this report from the global Commission there is a recommendation which is to deploy the so called integrated reporting you know companies today are mainly reporting their financials but if we really want to move forward is really to not only to encourage but strongly encourage companies to put in place the integrated reporting which force companies to report for sure on the financials like it was in the past but also on the social key factors key metrics and the environmental key metrics and this is this will force companies to really move think about it but it will also make the financial community especially especially the investment community community to look at these metrics and invest in companies which are really working for the a great future well and it feels like we're at a tipping point because obviously you know last year big news the Black Rock saying we need to look at more than just share price but a lot you know I mean this is great a great point what is the metric we need a new metric i CEOs are telling me okay we love that it's not just about share price that's good but what is the metric yeah and I know I think these are absolutely right and I think that being in companies that have a sustainability report since 25 years back so although I I think that we have been reporting all this time and you start to get the investor start asking you or doing this I think the problem is that you have a financial metrics where Standard & Poor and everybody this is exactly how we rate you and this is a triple B in the social environment there's so many environment and so many things that and I think as a corporation we would happy if it would be one set of benchmark that is important for the society and do it and the the global alliance the global benchmark alliances which is you is a foundation in Netherlands is actually starting to try to do that I'm also on the board of UN foundation which is of course supporting that and I think that ultimately we all are trying to do that sustainability reporting but if we can also even get some benchmark how it hangs together yeah between us it's even better and I think that CEOs like me and many others we would even welcome that yeah that's right now you know you meet investors here and they ask you about one thing in other they are measuring this and of course it it becomes three thousand KPI ultimately and then you need to decide these for the kpi's does really matter to me hopefully the map is for the society as well yeah if I had on Sinai we are CEO of listed company so we meet every year 120 150 investors in individual meetings how many times did you did we get the questions about or social and environmental metrics I would say I get it but how many times did I bring it up myself many their responsibilities important my response really doesn't lead them to bring it up what we're doing why we do it and why it's part of my strategy it's too many times people believe this is philanthropy it's not and I worked with European investors a little bit more American and their little bit different that's one so I love the energy made to shift investors I mean we have 37 trillion dollars of workers capital investor pensions yes and we are frankly sick of it being passively invested you give it to the list it's actually not doing good for workers because a lot of companies were investing simply don't pay living wages they don't respect rights they don't bargain collectively but equally important it's not doing the job for the climate either and so one of our latest initiatives because we're so passionate about getting the trust from just transition we actually partnered with the PRI and with the London School of Economics and Harvard and we've put out an investor brief on on just transition and I'm I'm actually kind of surprised but delighted that I don't know exactly the latest figure but it's almost up to ten billions already been attend trillions already been actually signed on to actually look through the lens of saying is it about just transition and are we doing good for the planet and for workers so you know we have to shift the investment frankly if all CEOs he told Standard and Poor's that they were just going to tear the writings if they didn't include us as social action police would be really really yes no organ you don't own you and yeah you know I mean Paul Polman say Dom yeah quarterly report yeah world hasn't the proposal why don't we use the World Economic Forum to accelerate that because we all agree if you don't measure environment and social we will not pay progress but as you said there are plenty of stoners there plenty of measurement but not big one that is a reference and at the same time even if it's increasing vaishu investor take it at the same level yeah I say I would say seriously so how you we cannot do have a workshop to say well we we need we need to progress on that because we all say now the number of CEOs and even investors yeah yeah say it's important let's also call to action because if we don't if we're not consistent from an investment standpoint infamous run standpoint we will have the same discussion history years I love this ok another action point we're being filmed Klaus I hope you're listening let's get let's get a group of CEOs labor leaders government officials to sign on to new metrics at the web next year that's one challenge for us I'm gonna be ok where I open it up to the audience I want to bring it back to the individuals and to education because this is a big debate globally you know what is the path how should education be reformed in order to train the new workforce there's I mean one thing I actually feel optimistic about there's a lot of kind of negativity around the skills gap in education I actually feel optimistic cuz in the u.s.
Anyway I see even though the system is very flawed in many ways I see a lot of paths opening up so I see a number of businesses for example working to create programs where kids will come out of high school with a two-year college degree as well as a you know you know in a state system where then that cuts the educational cost later on I see community colleges and vocational programs the kind of Germanic model becoming more important I see talk about making education cheaper I see questions about whether a four-year degrees for everyone so I'm curious if you all want to jump in on that and say what you think needs to happen in the educational system perhaps Minister you want to start to ensure good jobs and a good labor force first it's a busy remark but it's see it's still from still very important to say it we need to invest massively to the primary education I mean they can that's interest for education we have measure in France that in fact two children were very poor when they're enter the school the primary school they have ten times less words how they can succeed so what we are doing now in France we're investing massively on the first we are going to do the early education three to six compulsory mandatory for everyone because we have 90 percent that Co any three but the 10% that don't come don't go most of them are from poor family so first we we want to have all the kids to have the same opportunity and then at the level of 6 at the age sorry of 6 where's really they learned the Lin learned to read and write which is critical we are doing a massive investment to have much more teacher much more a different approach for sure that all kids really master reading writing technology math and respect in social respect its respected I love that that's in there was damn and it seems the sub-skills who live together yeah yeah and it seems trivial but even in a developed country we're not there for 100 percent of the population we need 100 percent of our kids to be sure they have the tools it's very interestingly and after we do massive things after 16 years and that's more my part with my colleague of education before yeah so join fort because we need to invest – onion Kings especially for instance for the reading the kids who don't have book at school book at home nobody readers they don't progress the same so we have to compensate that it will make them more involved in a culture environment yeah and I think it's this early investment this on the factor after sixteen we will have a massive investment to retrain all the time I think it's it's a key it's very simple but to do it massively is a challenge you have to start so early okay you know say I used the same model for everything I have trying to do so first of all you do with your own staff you try to give them all the potential to to rescale and train and so then of course as we're technology company will also understand that we are doing massive connectivity around the country in u.s.
Especially so and then of course we're very interested to get them out in the schools so we have actually decided that we are doing four hundred million US dollars investment in 350 schools that doesn't have connectivity don't have that the the pads and nor having a stem program there you need even better collaboration within public and private because then you know you get in that kind of private company come in to do it but I see it if I do it internally and then I can go out and say that I can do it externally it's actually working so we're in the middle of deployment deploys 400 million u.s. dollars in 350 schools in the u.s. that doesn't have connectivity even though they can be very close where it's very great areas they don't have it and so I think it has to be partnership I of course need agility in the education system much quicker learning process etc but it's also responsibility for public companies part of their strategy and again it's part of our strategy is to do technology is to learn people that technology and of course then we can bring it to them okay I've got it do you want to make a final point before no I would like to bring another perspective shared because you have said it we don't know what the jobs will be in five to ten years from now but what we know it is very important to learn soft skills new skills yeah teamwork creativity yes nothing and I think it is important from the basic education to learn this new capacity this curiosity also how to learn to learn because this will be probably the best skills you can bring with you towards if it's a really profound point actually because I mean there is a lot of research to show that teams create more productive more profitable companies but frankly incentive wise sometimes you have a superstar economy you know that that's another issue we could have another panel on incentives but Saudi I'm looking at you maybe next year let me we've got a couple questions coming through here on the on the iPad so let me let me ask these to the group first from Johanna Bryson it seems to me that the issue is not jobs but wages and inequality does AI make people more substitutable reducing wage differentiation and the collective power of labor so maybe Sharon well I mean that's true there's no doubt that if we don't I mean inequality has been seen as a global risk and you know you'll hear people say it's not globalization we are all committed to a trade a global trade environment but not on the current rules because the current model of supply chains are exploitative in dehumanizing and frankly good CEOs who you know work in their normal direct employment relationships in probably a very positive way have no idea what's going on in their submergent they choose often not to have any others because that's the obscurity due diligence is mandated it's the UN business and human rights principles it's voluntary in there but it's mandated in France we want due diligence mandated everywhere it is about responsibility and that's something technology can actually help with I'm not mirroring a lot of interests in supply chain folks no you're right I mean even though you have 150,000 and police when I start looking into how many impacting everyday important my supply chain they need to live up to the same standard I mean ultimate is our responsibility in our brand that is involved if I have a partner that is not living up to to the standard that we have and we have what happens but but you need the water that you need to put into the contract with your supplier saying that this is how we behave this is our rules etc and if you don't do it I can tell you it will not work especially if we're gonna get to an environment where you're a small company and you use partners who are delivering everything you need a very transparent supply chain you know do that but you know the AI question technology unchecked is actually fueling monopolies yeah and you do you know more about this runner than anybody because the earth but indeed if you take a company like Amazon we gave up on competition policy for example there are others and yet Amazon's direct employees in the US are paid you know richest man in the world company now is expanding in every sector and it will end it will within four or five years be the dominant global retailer buying up all sorts of companies are risking development in in other environments but a third of the workforce in the u.s.
In the u.s. is eligible for food stamps so imagine what the expectations like through the supply chain that's gotta wind that is about the rule of law a new social contract a labor guarantees the floor and due diligence it's a package that can work yeah I think coming back to the to the statements I think we should not blame a technology for the wage issue and so on I think there are two separate two separate topics thanks to technology we can imply and amplify the human resources the work of the human resources we can concentrate the human resources on what they'd really like to do so we should look at the opportunities of the technology the other topics regarding wages and so on should be treated I think differently without the point of the technology it's all about this new reinvigorated social contract about the wealth distribution and who is who is getting what for what but for me this has nothing to do with technology okay let me put up one more question here and then we'll open it up to folks in the audience as well actually I'm gonna put two two questions that are sort of related one that's popped up as well from an anonymous questioner as investors in a low interest environment I am Not sure we are ready to allow less profitable companies what do you think that's interesting because that question is essentially saying look we're at a market Turning Point here we may be at the end of a credit cycle I mean if you think about recessions typically happen every eight to eleven years we're ten years into a global recovery cycle is this a moment in which we're going to be able to make the kinds of changes that we're talking about here I think the assumption is wrong okay sustainable companies okay so if you don't I think we need to have that mindset done and that's where I prove and I think so I think the statement is wrong and usually if you if you lead the company you should believe if you do sustainability and doing the right thing for the society that's going to bring you better strategy bet the customers gonna like you better you can either but about the products I mean if you don't believe not them and Wow because the question is rather why have we gone lower stagnant growth yeah comes back to Henry Ford got this right a long time ago demand if you want people to buy your products you have to have anyway yeah and consequently without that the cycle of economic growth 1% simple I'm always fascinated by Henry Ford the fact that he was Pro demand but anti-union yeah like you know we could do a whole nother I know sometimes dead but yeah oh my gosh okay well I'm sorry are we gonna take website or their mics there it's in there okay yeah let's let's go back here and then I'll do one of it thank you thank you very much my name is hopping from the Ministry of human resources in social security China and we are a ministry responsible for promoting employment developing skew and extending our social insurance programs and promoting harmonious labor relation so the topic today in this is very relevant so in fact we have a wise Minister here attending this conference yes listening very attentively so the discussion and inside is really relevant to us the question I would like to ask perhaps all of all all of you is that we our topic is about a strategy job creation strategy for industry for in this job in this strategy there is a very important group that is the people who live in poverty so how in developing our strategies that we can help those people yeah that that that they can better memorable yes yeah to the fourth Industrial Relations Industrial and really even thrive so that's a question and I would add to that something from the pad here how do you create growth in cities that are not international hubs you know in the rural areas in second or third tier cities so who wants to just leak to that I can start your I can kick off we know each other very well so thank you for your presence and thank you also for your questions now when we looked at the data and there has been statistic from the OECD about the development of the unemployment during the last ten years and what it's very interesting you see that in fact the the the impact of the future of work of the industry 4.0 is mainly on the medium skilled people but people with rather limited skills but perhaps a lot of soft skills empathy customer service and and so on has not been impacted by by this technology in road also the highly skilled people have not been really impacted on the contrary you have seen the you see the employment growing the big impact is on the medium medium skilled and that's where we to rescale these people or to obscure them to really bring them in the competencies and the skills new technology is requested to do function maybe French experience on that first endear are in our big skills investment plan which I got mainly of course young people and unemployed people so those kids the level of unemployment it's 3% from manager so this is no more unemployment for managers 6% for qualified people 18% for unqualified people so the first difference is skills second thing is where you live yeah and we have specific program because when you live in a suburb areas or rural area we can measure that you have with the same qualification have the chance to get a job yeah not you are not the right address oh you don't have a way to go there so it's part of our politics so it's bad woman is that's the question of wedges economy economic performance and social equity and the Karen on me so the after the family in France are seeing your buzzers how do they get a job house it can be skilled they've been trained so we know how we feel the gender gap it's why we passed a bill also on a gender equality and since first of January now there is an obligation of results that we have built with social partners for all company in France and we're very confident because we are created index to measure to make progress that we have build it together and for the first time in this topic were full support of opinions and on per years and but but today we have 9% of difference of wedges for the same jobs still 46 years after the law the previous law and 25% compare carriers that's in all countries so that's part of the question of wages and skills and whether also create rights suplementarios for people working part-time because 80% are women so you have to cut out what I mean is you now cannot separate your policy solaced one is women an is addition one is a right man one is a middle-sized or suburbs or yes because we have to combine them and then you can move it okay we have two minutes left we have one very eager questioner back here make it a quick one yes I think that we should use the fourth Industrial Revolution and to solve this problem and not great indexes between companies and governments ask the people and have them develop their own dashboard about their customized personal needs for training and go overcoming poverty let's not repeat the big thing now we can reach every worker Facebook page what's up they can wait we can now customize the training needs for every family in the world easily if we allow them to measure their own strengths and weaknesses okay that is oh wait we have oh sorry are you gonna have a couple of words here at the end what are we yeah please okay Sadia you're on this is your show actually this is a woman behind a lot of the stats you've been hearing about self okay well thank you very much runner and thank you to the panel fascinating conversation and I think much more solutions oriented than in the past year I think we went beyond the context to be on discussing how there might be disruptions to jobs and really starting to talk about what are some of the solutions around jobs education and skills what was all trained interesting is all of the broader factors that came into play the topic around market concentration the topic around the need for better social safety nets all of this is being taken forward in the forums new center for the new economy in society which we've just created a few months ago and it's meant to be a response it's to go to go to Ellen Allen's point let's not worry about technology is the problem let's think about what the opportunity spaces and let's try to identify how we deal with the implications for our economic policies and for our society so for those of you who would be interested in continuing the conversation please do talk to me or any of my team members and we'd be happy to connect with you thanks Rhonda thank you for that thank you to the panelists for a really engage